The Holding Pen is our first foray into the subterranean depths below MI (below the sub-basement level of the Mift office even), as well as our introduction to Sunny’s realm, deep in the bowels of Monsters Inc. As Sunny’s pale and Golem-esque complexion and aversion to light suggests, this location is akin to a dark dank cave and she rarely see’s the outdoors. The colorscripts for this location were dark and mysterious, with deep shadows and the environment falling away into darkness, helping sell the vast loneliness of the area. This sequence in particular is to start out spooky as they start to unravel the mystery of the Leaky Leaks.
Along with Sunny’s introduction, we are also introduced to her realm, the Holding Pen and the Receiving Station, deep underground in the bowels of Monsters Inc. As her pale complexion and aversion to light suggests, this location is akin to a dank dark cave. Even more critical in HDR, the colorscripts were for the location to be dark and mysterious, especially in the initial holding pen sequence, where it would be hard to judge the size of the rooms as they would simply fall away into darkness.
Overall the global ambience was brought down, to help increase the drama and creepiness of the location, also allowing for it to be believable that Sunny was hiding in the shadows watching them until she springs out from between the canisters. HDR was also an important aspect of this sequence so make sure things could still be seen in all colorspaces. These sequences were tricky as a global correction simply muddied the scene and made everything too dark. Instead each character and background element had its own treatment applied, to help have the walls fall off into shadow, reducing the ambient glow, leaving pools of light to help keep focus on the characters.
As Fritz’s missing key is one of the great mysteries to be tracked throughout the second season, it was important for it to stand out and be recognizable to the audience, even here in the darkness.
Below is a video comparison pop-up of the entire sequence, best viewed on a desktop.
